OneMoreThing
Bob Englehart’s Sunday cartoon is a nice companion to my Friday post on Jodi Rell’s OneThing.
What’s even better is the blog post that accompanies Englehart’s cartoon. An excerpt:
I’ll tell you “one thing” that’s going to happen with the governor’s conservation campaign. You can take this to the bank. Actually, you can take this to the bank and start withdrawing your money to pay your electric bill. Conservation will work. We’re not idiots. We know how to save money on our electric bills. We’ve been doing it for months. When we do, when we cut our electric consumption further, the power companies will go to D-PUKE … I’m sorry … DPUC and ask for a rate increase because demand has fallen and so has their income. D-PUKE … there I go again … the DPUC will grant them any rate hike they want because the DPUC is a poodle for the energy companies. Somebody once said necessity is the mother of invention.
I think he’s right. We’re getting screwed by energy companies in Connecticut. Tim O’Brien left a thoughtful comment on my original Energy Gimmick post, of which I’ll post an excerpt here:
[T]he fact that energy efficiency is such a softball political issue is reason the people trying to maintain the failed deregulation system used ‘conservation’ as their rhetorical alternative to the real reforms that would have lowered electric rates.
Of course, ‘conservation’ can mean either everyone buying efficient light bulbs or someone without a lot of money shivering in the dark because they cannot afford to use electricity. The anti-lower rates, pro-Wall Street profit side of the energy policy debate, frankly, did not seem bothered by the human cost of protecting higher rates and demanding less power usage.
There’s more where that came from, click here to read his full response.
I think that Maura found further proof that the OneThing is just smoke and mirrors:
I couldn’t help but notice this disclaimer at the bottom of the “Summer Saver” web site for CL&P:
This program is funded through the Systems Benefit Charge (SBC) line item on customer bills.
Am I reading this right? The “credit” that the energy companies are offering for reducing summer electric use is paid for by a charge that all ratepayers pay??????
If so, that’s even more of a gimmick than I thought!!!! It’s not money coming from CL&P, it’s coming from all ratepayers in the form of an extra charge. BAH!
The electric company is beating us with our own bat. That’s fucked up.
Call 1-877-WISE-USE and get your credit (which is probably better described as a refund). I love how the “Summer Saver” page says “There is no risk and no cost to you…” when they’re funding it with an extra charge on our bills. Total bullshit.